Old Kingdom of Norway

The Old Kingdom of Norway was the first instance of a united Norway, existing from 872 to 1397. At the Battle of Hafrsfjord on 18 July 872, Harald Fairhair united the Viking petty kingdoms of Norway, and Orkney and Shetland were conquered in 875, followed by Iceland in 1262. Norwegian settlers travelled across the seas to the British Isles, North America, Iceland, and Greenland, and King Sigurd I of Norway led a crusade from 1107 to 1110, fighting in Portugal, the Balearic Islands, and in the Levant. From 1130 to 1240, Norway was torn apart during the Norwegian Civil War, with the peasant Birkebeiners and aristocratic and mercantile Baglers fighting for control of the monarchy. In 1319, the males of the Fairhair dynasty went extinct, and the throne passed to Magnus VII, who was also King of Sweden. In 1343, Magnus abdicated in favor of Haakon VI of Norway, whose reign was marked by the country's decline during the Black Death; 65% of the population died, many farms were deserted (causing nobles to lose their income), and several nobles were killed by the disease. After Haakon's death in 1380, Olav IV of Norway ascended to the throne, and he claimed the thrones of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. After he died at the age of 17, his mother Margaret I of Denmark united the three kingdoms in a personal union, the Kalmar Union. A series of Danish monarchs would rule Norway until 1814, followed by Swedish rule until 1905, when Norway finally regained its independence.